Oscillatory tunneling head having removable sector plates



Nov. 26, 1968 w. KRABBE ET A1. 3,413,034

OSCILLATORY TUNNILING HEAD HAVING REMOVABLE SECTOR PLATES Filed Aug. l, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet l w E RAA w Q1, mRH s ME NKKM N EDMAM n LA VF. RA 0 Z L NRN m MT 7 IFIL T 2 LWIL MA 7 7 wEEw F.

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5 16 T/ O G\ O 6 INVENTORS WILFRIED KRABBE ERWIN MICHAEL EMIL RANG WOLFRAM SCHENCK 'Bye fha-244 MWL ATTO QN ey@ NOV 25, 1968 w. KRABBE ET AL 3,413,034

OSCILLATORY TUNNELNG HEAD HAVING REMOVABLE SECTOR PLATES Filed Aug. 1, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Fig. 5

INVENTORS WILFRIED KRABBE ERWIN MICHAEL EMIL RANG WOLFRAM SCHENCK er. 01m mam ATTRNtyJ N0V- 26, 1968 w. KRABBE ET Al. 3,413,034

OSCILLATORY TUNNELING HEAD HAVING REMOVABLE SECTOR PLATES Filed Aug. l, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Fig. 6

INVENTORS WILFRIED KRABBE ERWIN MICHAEL EMIL RANG WOLF RAM SCHENCK Bw fvwm :x6/mug United States Patent O M 3,413,034 OSCILLATORY TUNNELING HEAD HAVING REMUVABLE SECTOR PLATES Wilfried Krabbe, Harlrsheide-Nord, Erwin Michael, Hamburg, Emil Rang, Frankfurt am Main, and Wolfram Schenck, Hamburg-Gross Flottbek, Germany, assignors to Philipp Holzmann Aktiengeseilschaft, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 539,499,

Apr. 1, 1966. This application Aug. 1, 1967, Ser.

17 Claims. (Cl. 299-33) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLGSURE A tunnel excavator comprising a shield adapted for a forward thrust, an oscillatory excavating means which includes a rotary disc with radial cutting arms and detachable segment plates, the disc being attached to an axial shaft having a clamp collar on its periphery, hydraulical driving means to turn the clamp-collar back and forth, and clamp collar control means for effecting a step-by-step rotation of the shaft.

This application is a continuation-in-part of copending application Ser. No. 539,499, filed on Apr. l, 1966 and now abandoned and having the title Excavators for Tunnels and the Like.

The present invention relates to the excavator for the excavation of tunnels, mining galleries and the like. More particularly, this invention relates to a tunnel shield having an excavation rotary disc, the cutting arms of which rotate about an axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tunnel shield.

It is well known to carry out the excavation operations in tunnels and mine galleries by means of fully mechanized tunnel Shields removing the ground by rotary movement of a front excavation head. The known machines, however, have certain drawbacks. Thus, as a result of the rotary engagement of the excavating means with the end of the tunnel there is a requirement of overcoming certain frictional and cutting forces encountered by the rotary excavating means, and this action produces a reaction on the shield frequently resulting in angular turning of the entire shield about its longitudinal axis during the forward thrust.

In order to avoid this latter drawback it has been proposed to provide stabilizing tins or anges fixed to and extending along the shield at the exterior thereof, although certain other measures also may be taken to counteract the reaction forces which tend to turn the shield. When the material to be excavated is particularly hard or rocky, the stabilizing structure situated at the exterior of the shield is often lost and the result is a continuous destruction or at least substantial damaging of the shield itself.

Moreover, measures such as those referred to above are suitable only for use when the material which is excavated is relatively homogeneous and of a small granular and cohesive structure. In those cases Where the cross section of the tunnel includes relatively heavy and relatively light stratification or layers situated one above the other or one beside the other, it can happen that the more easily excavated material is removed at a rate which is too great, so that excessive loosening of the material in advance of the shield takes place. In this way there is a danger of substantial settling of the ground situated over the tunnel, which can be particularly damaging at locations where the ground over the tunnel is cultivated, for example. Moreover, it sometimes happens that the rotary excavating means will encounter individual boulders or 3,413,034 Patented Nov. 26, 1968 ICC other obstructions which are not cut loose by the rotary excavating means which sweeps around the entire end of the tunnel.

There are other known excavating machines, which, however, suffer from the drawback of operating properly only with specific types of materials without, however, providing any sufcient guarantee against undesirable settling of the ground over the tunnel.

It is accordingly a primary object of the invention to provide, for excavating tunnels or the like, an apparatus which will avoid the above drawbacks.

In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide an excavating apparatus which will very greatly reduce the possibility of turning of the shield as the result of reaction forces of the excavating operations.

Furthermore, it is an object of the invention to provide a structure which, if it should happen that for some reason there is any turning of the shield, will make it possible to readily return the shield to its proper angular position.

It is also an object of the invention to provide an excavating apparatus capable of performing excavating operations only on selected portions of the end of the tunnel.

Thus, it is an object of the invention to provide an excavating apparatus whose operations can easily be adapted to the particular properties of the material which are encountered as well as to special circumstances Such as encountering of individual heavy boulders or other obstructions during the excavating operations.

The objects of the present invention also include the provision. of an excavating apparatus which will provide a reliable support for the end of the tunnel during the excavating operations irrespective of the particular depth to which the excavating tools extend into the end of the tunnel.

Another object of this invention is to improve removal of the excavated material.

Still further objects of the invention is to provide a relatively simple and compact excavating means which occupies a small amount of space within the shield.

In accordance with the present invention the rotary motion of the excavating disc can be arbitrarily reversed or given into an oscillating motion, so that the cutting blades will periodically act first in one direction and then in opposite direction. The rotary drive for the excavating disc is accomplished by means of traverse motion of swing pistons preferably of hydraulic jacks, whereby the amplitude of the traverse motion is adjustable. The surface area of the excavating disc is provided with at least one open sector which can be optionally covered by a sector plate. The sector plates are mounted on springs and cover the entire open section except a slot along the cutting blades. The frame of the excavating head is supported in the shield in a Cardanic suspension and controlled by additional hydraulic jacks for tumbler action.

The manner in which the above objects of this invention are accomplished is more fully described below with reference to the attached drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional elevation showing schematically tunnel excavator according to this invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the excavating disc;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the rotary excavating means;

FIG. 4 shows the hydraulical drive for the rotary excavation disc;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional top view of the excavating disc as shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a sectional side view of the excavating disc showing the arrangement of a sector plate;

FIG. 7 is a sectional fragmentary rear view of the excavating disc; and

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of hydraulical control means for controlling the operation of the excavation disc.

The tunnel excavator, as shown in FIG. l, is situated in advance of the already completed tunnel 19 and consists generally of a tunnel shield 12 having an excavation head 20. The excavation head 2() comprises a rotary excavating disc which includes a plurality of arms 1 extending radially from the axis of rotation in a manner similar to spokes of a wheel, as shown most clearly in FIG. 2. The arms 1 are xed on a hollow rotary drive shaft 4, whose axis coincides with the axis of the rotary excavating disc, and are provided with hinges 1S pivotally carrying elongated support beams 2. Cutter blades 3 are xedly mounted on each support beam 2 in consecutively spaced relationship and have a fork-like configuration for cutting in both directions, as illustrated in FlG. 5.

The rotary hollow shaft 4 further carries brackets 8, arranged radially between the arms 1. Each bracket 8 is provided with spring presssed plungers to support removable individual sector plates 9 which are distributed over the sector-shaped openings dened between the arms 1, to avoid undesirable falling of the material. The gap between the plates 9 and cutting lblades 3 provides an elongated slot through which the excavated material can fall to the rear of the excavating disc. The spring-pressed plungers 10 will urge the plates 9 into a constant engagement with the end wall of the tunnel 19 irrespective of the depth to which the cutting blades 3 extend into the excavated wall. The arrangement of the sector plates 9 and the manner in which they are mounted on the brackets 8 is particularly apparent in FIGS. 6 and 7. These sector plates 9 can be arbitrarily connected or disconnected from their position on plungers 10 so that the excavation can be carried out with or without support of the excavated tunnel wall. As seen in FIG. 7, the sector plate 9 can be composed of a number of separate plate elements which are removably connected to the bracket 8 by spring plungers 10.

The rotary hollow shaft 4 is supported for rotation in lbearings 22 and 23 xed in a girder frame 11 which is seated in a Cardanic suspension 26 on the shield frame 12. Between the bearings 22 and 23, a clamp collar 6 with hydraulical span jacks 5 is slidably arranged on the outer periphery of the drive shaft 4. In accordance with this invention the collar 6 is oscillated by pistons of hydraulic ally controlled jacks 7, so as to swing back and forth through a predetermined angle about the axis of rotation. The hydraulic jacks 7 are pivotably mounted on the girder frame 11 and operatively connected in four spaced joints with the periphery of the clamp collar 6.

The span jacks 5 as well as the drive jacks 7 are controlled by a hydraulic circuit 21 shown in FIG. 8, which will alternately displace the pistons out of the cylinders of the jacks 7, so that the collar 6 is swung first in one direction and then in an opposite direction. Simultaneously the span jacks 5 selectively clamp or release the collar 6. As a result the shaft 4 executes an interrupted cyclic movement in the desired direction. To adjust the amplitude of the traverse motion of jacks 7, a limit switch is actuated by adjustable terminal rods 16 to reverse the operation of opposite pairs of jacks 7, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 8. In this way the speed of rotary motion of the shaft 4 can be adjusted from zero to the maximum in both directions.

The entire shield 12 can be advanced by means of the presses 15 which engage the shield frame 12 against the tunnel walls. It is also possible to actuate the presses 15 so as t0 compensate deviations of shield 12 in axial direction or to retract the shield 12 along its axis. Due to the Cardanic suspension of the frame 11, it is possible to tumble the excavating head by means of press jacks 13 operatively connected to the frame 11 and shield frame 12.

Situated just to the' rear of the rotary excavation disc, a conveyor 14 removes the excavated material into a discharge hopper 24 from which the material is further conveyed. The conveyor 14 is driven independently of the excavating head drive.

The shaft drive according to this invention can be accomplished also with conventional electric, hydraulic or other motors, although the alternately operating hydraulic jacks 7 provide a particularly simple and space saving means since it enables relatively large drive elements and gearing to be eliminated, so that it is of particular advantage for small shields.

By properly regulating the increment of angular oscillation of the swinging excavating means of the invention, it is possible for only part of the end of the tunnel to be worked on, so that the excavating means of the invention is particularly valuable for use with stratied and layered material of widely diterent properties. ln particular, when encountering obstructions such as boulders, the operations can easily be adapted so as to be carried out at the particular region where such an obstruction is located, and thus cut such an obstruction loose rby concentrating the operations on the earth formation around the boulder which can be subsequently removed by means of special tools.

Furthermore, the structure of the excavating head 0f the invention makes possible to use one or more additional excavating tools for cooperation with the oscillating cutting arms. The excavation head of this invention leaves sufficient room for accommodation and interchange of ditterent types of above mentioned additional tools, such for example, as diggers and scraping tools. At the rear of the hopper 24, there is a building device 17 for erecting wall segments 27 within the completed tunnel 19.

The shown and described embodiment is only to be considered as an example as various variations are conceivable within the scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. A tunnel excavator comprising a cylindrical shield having a longitudinal axis, an oscillatory excavating head disposed within said shield for a movement about said longitudinal axis, a hydraulic power drive means operatively coupled between said shield and said excavating head for imparting an oscillating movement thereto, said oscillatory excavating head comprising a number of spokelike arms for carrying excavating tools adaped for excavating the tunnel end wall in both directions of the oscillating movement of said head, and a number of sector plates adapted for being arbitrarily placed in and displaced from the open sectors between said spoke-like arms to support the tunnel end wall during the excavation process on the one hand and to insure an access thereto on the other hand.

2. The excavator according to claim 1 wherein respective sector plates are composed of a number of separate plate elements removably connected to said head by spring means.

3. The excavator according to claim 1 further comprising conveyor means for removing the excavated material from the room behind the excavating tools.

4. The excavator according to claim 1 wherein said shield comprises means for the forward thrust.

S. The excavator according to claim 1 wherein said oscillatory excavating head includes at least one excavating tool operative in one direction of rotation of said excavating head and at least one additional excavating tool operative in the opposite direction of rotation of said rotary excavating head.

6. The excavator according to claim 5 wherein said excavating tools are pivotally arranged on said spoke-like arms.

7. The excavator according to claim 1 wherein said sector plates are removably mounted on radial brackets protruding into open sectors between respective spokelike arms.

8. The excavator according to claim 7 wherein said sector plates are removably mouned on said brackets =by means of spring-pressed plungers.

9. The excavator according to claim 8 comprising elongated slots between said excavating tools and said sector plates, for passing the excavated material.

10. The tunnel excavator according to claim 1 wherein said oscillatory excavating head comprises a centrally arranged drive shaft and a coupling means provided between said shaft and said hydraulic power drive.

11. The tunnel excavator according to claim 10 wherein said oscillating hydraulic power drive comprises at least a pair of hydraulic jacks hinged for an alternating traverse motion between said coupling means and said shield.

12. The excavator according to claim 11 wherein said coupling means is a clamp collar being in slidable contact with said shaft, whereby the clamping and releasing action of said clamp collar is effected by hydraulical clamp press means.

13. The tunnel excavator according to claim 11 wherein said oscillatory excavating head is supported for rotation in a support frame, said support frame being attached to a universal suspension mounted to said shield.

14. The tunnel excavator according to claim 13 wherein said hydraulic power drive further comprises press means for advancing and retracting said head support means along said longitudinal axis.

15. The excavator according to claim 11 comprising hydraulical control means including adjustable limit switch for controlling amplitude of the traverse motion of said pair of hydraulical jacks.

16. The excavator according to claim 15 wherein said hydraulical control means further controls the operation of said hydraulical clamp press means.

17. The excavator according to claim 16 wherein said control means comprises adjustable means for adjusting the angle through which said oscillatory excavating head is swung as to selectively prevent excavation in a predetermined sector in the tunnel wall.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,462,997 7/ 1923 Anderson 299-90 X 2,760,766 8/ 1956 Mayo 299-31 3,301,600 1/1967 Pirrie et al 299-56 X 3,355,215 11/1967 Haspert et al 299-33 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,424 4/ 1876 Great Britain. 934,996 8/ 1963 Great Britain.

ERNEST R. PURSER, Primary Examiner. 

